The Ohio Independent Baptist, April 1961

~pr_il,~19_6_1~-----------------------T_H ___ EO_H __ IO __ I_N_D_E_PE_N __ D_E_N_T __ B_A_P_TI __ T________ ~ ________________P_a~g~e_Th.r __ ee they said ex tempore in the open discus– sion, for if they had had time to write it out and look at it, they would have changed some things. It is evident that their main desire was to help a church steer a middle course and save it from division. EXTRE:tvfE LAXNE I HARMFUL When a church gets a reputation as a good place to go after a divorce, it can– not commend irs fundamentalism in doc– trine. When only the pastor draws a line by refusing to marry divorced people, and the church continues to tolerate any– thing, his influence is cut in half. If he stays five or more years, he will see more than one church family treat marriage vows like scraps of paper, and yet have to serve them communion. What else can he do when some of l1is leading mem– bers were once allowed to get by with similar sin? We could wish that all would agree that one who commies adultery should be disciplined and only restored to mem– bership after evident repentance. J esus called remarriage adultery unless the f irsc marriage had been broken by unfaithft.!l– ness. H ow many church members are disciplined for that kind of adultery? Most of them bring their new mate to church the next Sunday and expect congratula- . ttOnS. We also doubt that the crip tures give us the right to differentiate between deacons, and officers not named in the Bible. It is difficult to believe that the early churches had neither treasurers nor clerks nor teachers! ome one handled the money they gave to the poor and to missionaries like Paul ( Acts 6, Phil. 4: 15 , 16); and some one sent and received church letters ( II Cor. 3: 1). It may be that the deacons took care of such things, bur that only proves that all church of– ficers below the rank of elders were called deacons. The word deacon means a minister or helper. As for teachers, the early church seems to have had a plurality of elders who were chosen for their apt– ness to teach; and the standards for an elder are hig her than those for a deacon! At any rate, we will all agree that in our modern churches the deacons do not have more influence than the teachers. Our church governmen t and constitu tions have Jittle resemblance to New Testament prac– tice. Again, like Topsy our modern church organization just "growed up." SUPER-STRICTNESS ALSO HARMFUL Much as we hate ovr modern laxity, we fear a legalistic strictness even more. As Moderator Adam Galt suggested, it is sometimes motivated by self-righteous spite aga1 nst others, rather than by love. Somet1mes it also comes from a failure to remember personal sins, which as the report suggests, were punishable by death in the Old Testament qu1ce as muc.h as the sjn of adultery If we had to tell our own past bef 0 1 e we cast tl1e first stone against some d 1vorce<l and remarried convert, very few scones would be cast! '1 he legalists al"'.rays insist that in rl1e Old 'I estamcnr the innocent !)arty was I ree to remarry because the guilty rnat<.! \Vas stoned, and that {orn1cation al ways and only means vice before marr1age . People guilty of sucl1 1n were not co be stoned, but could be divorced witl1 rhe rigl1t of remarriage if tliey }1ad rnar– ried tl1e first tin1e under false pretenses, clain1ing to be pure. They forget cl1ac • in Jesus' day the stoning of adulterers had long been neglected and that divorce had taken its place. They also fail to realize that fornication is a general term in the Greek New Testament and can be applied to any sex sin, before or after marriage (Acts 15:29). They also for– get that by their own rule they leave a great many people free to divorce and remarry, since less than half of the people of modern America are virgins at the time of their first marriage and very few of them confess beforehand to their sins. EASTER I OVER but OUL WINNING I NOT! Will your church continue all spring and summer to serve the risen Christ in visitation, vacation Bible schools, youth camps, tent meetings, and in surveying for new churches? The legalises also insist that an adulter– ous marriage is a continuing sin that can only be ended by another divorce, or at least by separate bed. ince divorce is sinful unless the new mate is unfaithful , they advocate doing evil that good might come ( Rom. 3 :8). We have our own idea about separate bed except by full consent of both partners ( I Cor. 7: 5) , bur one thing is sure: it is humanly impossible except for the few ( Matt. 19: 12) who never get into divorce tangles. ome go so far as to say that rectification must be made by divorcing the present mate and going back to the first. That is definitely forbidden in Deur. 24 :4. Then we have I Cor. 7 :20 to suggest that if a man is saved after he has divorced and remarried, he should abide in the state he was when he was saved . In our younger years we tried in the interests of strictness to hold two mutual– ly contradictory views: 1, that an adulter– ous marriage ( one where the previous marriage was not broken by unfaithful– ness ) would continue to be adulterous; and 2, chat nevertheless that marriage should not be broken up. Under such teaching one poor woman committed suicide. She was worrying about it before we ever talked to her , but the point is that with our contradictory ideas, we were nor able to help her. It has to be one or the other, and with I Cor. 7 :20 and 6: 11 in the Bible it should not be hard to tell which it must be. Our Lord hir"lself said that adultery breaks the marriage bond. It is a ter– rible thing to break it on the first night of rhe second marriage, but if it is broken it 1s broken , and chat prevents repetition . erta1nly people who have divorced, ,virh– out the one reason permitted by our Lord , and t11en remarry are guilty of a terrible s1n and ougl1c ro re1)ent of ic They ought not join a c.hurch unci J they have repented of it. If already men1ber5, they ought nor rake communion unr1l they l1ave truly re pented at heart and confessed ir before tl1e deaconc., who have charge of the table. We oughc t(> be n1uch strtcter in our t11urche5 than we are! No wonder ,ve can't have revival, when the very ,vords of Jesus are rrampled under feet ,vicl1ouc ( Co11t1111tlffl on p,1ge 9) The Ohio Independent Baptist Published Monthly by THE OHIO A SOCIATION OF REGULAR BAPTIST CHURCHES Publication Off1ce 15 3 outh Jefferson , Berne, Ind . Editor RALPH T . NORDLUND 586 Maple rrcet Fostoria, Ohio Circ1tlat1on 11 Ianager MR . JOHN KAU1Z 4 519 W cllington Ave. Parma 34, Ohio S11bscription Rate : Per single copy ------------ S .15 Per Year ______________ 2.00 D:SADLI E FOR NEW : 15th of each month Advertising Rate : Per column inch __________ _ Per half page -------------– Per full page ------------- $2.00 27.00 50.00 Second class postage paid at Berne, Indiana. Postmaster : Please send form 3547 to The Ohio Independent Baptist, 4519 Wellington Ave., Parma 34, Ohio. COUNCIL AND OFFICER Chairman Rev. H all Daurel, 1209 econd t. Portsmouth, Ohio ecretary Rev. Adam A. Galt pencer, Oh10 Treas11rer Rev. T. Fred Hus e} 615 Washington Ave ile , Ohio ,\ (isJionar) (.h,n . Rev. Lynn Roger _,85 ·-'l . Boyden or thf1eld , h10 ) '011tl; D11 ector Rev . Glenn Green",ood ~ 15 ... . Kens1ngcon Plclc.e pr1ngt 1eld, 01110 Ot/Jer 1 le,nbers EARL V ILLE1 l ~ JOlIN BALYO JOI--l l 1 RO (~ ALI~A E 1 1 1 DhAN 1-IENR\' •----------------------~--------iu.-.